Albert Snider (October 22, 1921March 5, 1948) was a jockey in

Thoroughbred racing Thoroughbred racing is a sport and industry involving the racing of Thoroughbred horses. It is governed by different national bodies. There are two forms of the sport – flat racing and jump racing, the latter known as National Hunt racing in ...

who had success in his native

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

as well as the United States. He was born in

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, maki ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, and got his first win on September 1, 1938, at Stamford Park racetrack in

Niagara Falls, Ontario Niagara Falls is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is on the western bank of the Niagara River in the Golden Horseshoe region of Southern Ontario, with a population of 88,071 at the Canada 2016 Census, 2016 census. It is part of the List of census ...

. Al Snider was riding in the southern United States in the latter part of 1938 where he quickly established a reputation as a capable rider. In the ensuing years he rode at major tracks in

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Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but i ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virgini ...

and

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Roc ...

. Among his significant wins were the

Arlington-Washington Lassie Stakes The Arlington-Washington Breeders' Cup Lassie Stakes is an American Thoroughbred horse race held annually in mid September at Arlington Park Racetrack in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Raced on Polytrack synthetic dirt over a distance of seven furlo ...

and the

Stars and Stripes Handicap The Stars and Stripes Stakes was a Grade III horse race in the United States for Thoroughbreds aged three years and up. It was last raced over a distance of 12 furlongs (1½ miles) on the turf at Arlington Park near Chicago as a lead up race to th ...

. In his best finish in an American Classic, Snider rode owner Fred W. Hooper's colt Hoop Jr. to second place in the 1945

Preakness Stakes The Preakness Stakes is an American thoroughbred horse race held on Armed Forces Day which is also the third Saturday in May each year at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. It is a Grade I race run over a distance of 9.5 furlongs ...

. He won the 1946 inaugural running of the Miss America Handicap with Hal Price Headley's Letmenow.

The Calumet years

Signed on to ride for

Calumet Farm Calumet Farm is a Thoroughbred breeding and training farm established in 1924 in Lexington, Kentucky, United States by William Monroe Wright, founding owner of the Calumet Baking Powder Company. Calumet is located in the heart of the Bluegra ...

, Al Snider would become the jockey for future United States' Racing Hall of Fame inductee,

Citation A citation is a reference to a source. More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated alphanumeric expression embedded in the body of an intellectual work that denotes an entry in the bibliographic references section of the work for the purpose of ...

. He rode Citation in his career debut on April 22, 1947, winning a

furlong A furlong is a measure of distance in imperial units and United States customary units equal to one eighth of a mile, equivalent to 660 feet, 220 yards, 40 rods, 10 chains or approximately 201 metres. It is now mostly confined to use i ...

race at

Havre de Grace Racetrack The Havre de Grace Racetrack was an American horse racing track on Post Road in Havre de Grace, Harford County, Maryland. Nicknamed "The Graw," it operated from August 24, 1912, to 1950. For a time, it was owned by the Harford Agricultural and B ...

and most notably going on to win the Belmont Futurity Stakes en route to Citation being voted the U.S. Champion 2-Year-Old Colt. In all, Snider rode Citation five times at age two and four times at age three. He won all nine races. Another of Snider's impressive wins in 1947 was aboard

Fervent Fervent Records is a contemporary Christian music record label based in Nashville, Tennessee. Fervent was bought by Word Records in 2005. Current artists * Chris August * Francesca Battistelli * Big Daddy Weave * Everfound * For King & C ...

in the mile and three-sixteenths

Pimlico Special The Pimlico Special is a Grade 3 American thoroughbred horse race for horses age three and older over a distance of miles ( furlongs) held at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland in mid May. The race currently offers a purse of $300,000. ...

. Run October 30 at

Narragansett Park Narragansett Park was an American race track for Thoroughbred horse racing in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Beginnings On May 18, 1934, Rhode Island voters approved a measure legalizing parimutuel betting by an almost 3 to 1 margin. The following day, ...

, stiff competition in the $25,000 winner-take-all race saw the field narrowed to four runners. In addition to Fervent,

also entered their best runner,

Armed Armed (May, 1941–1964) was an American Thoroughbred gelding race horse who was the American Horse of the Year in 1947 and Champion Older Male Horse in both 1946 and 1947. He was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame i ...

. Ridden by

Douglas Dodson Douglas Allan Dodson (December 21, 1921 - February, 1982) was a Champion jockey in American Thoroughbred horse racing. Early life Douglas Dodson was born in Pickardville, Alberta, Canada, the son of James Floyd and Emma Dodson. His family moved t ...

, bettors made Armed the 1-5 favorite in a year the future Hall of Fame

gelding A gelding is a castration, castrated male horse or other equine, such as a pony, donkey or a mule. Castration, as well as the elimination of hormonally driven horse behavior, behavior associated with a stallion, allows a male equine to be calmer a ...

would be voted

American Horse of the Year The American Award for Horse of the Year, one of the Eclipse Awards, is the highest honor given in American thoroughbred horse racing. Because Thoroughbred horse racing in the United States has no governing body to sanction the various awards, "Hor ...

honors. The William G. Helis Sr. colt

Cosmic Bomb "Cosmic bomb" was another name for the atomic bomb. It was used for a short period of time in 1945 and 1946. The first ''New York Times'' story about the bombing of Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an ...

had Ovie Scurlock aboard, Loyal Legion, owned by Walter M. Jeffords, was ridden by

Eddie Arcaro George Edward Arcaro (February 19, 1916 – November 14, 1997), was an American Thoroughbred horse racing Hall of Fame jockey who won more American classic races than any other jockey in history and is the only rider to have won the U.S. Tri ...

. In the space of two days in May 1947, Albert Snider guided three different horses to wins at

in track record time. On two days during July at two racetracks in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

he rode two more horses to a track record time, one on turf and the other on dirt. 1948 promised to be a great year as Al Snider prepared to ride Citation in the U.S. Triple Crown series. At Hialeah Park Race Track, he rode the colt to victory in the 1948

Seminole The Seminole are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, ...

and Everglades Handicaps. Then, after winning the Flamingo Stakes, on March 5 Snider used a day off to go

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in the

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. While out on the water, a sudden

storm A storm is any disturbed state of the natural environment or the atmosphere of an astronomical body. It may be marked by significant disruptions to normal conditions such as strong wind, tornadoes, hail, thunder and lightning (a thunderstorm), ...

came up and Al Snider apparently drowned. A search party found no trace of his body but reportedly found his

skiff A skiff is any of a variety of essentially unrelated styles of small boats. Traditionally, these are coastal craft or river craft used for leisure, as a utility craft, and for fishing, and have a one-person or small crew. Sailing skiffs have deve ...

eight days later on an island 10 miles south of

Everglades City Everglades City (formerly known as Everglades) is a city in Collier County, Florida, United States, of which it is the former county seat. As of the 2010 census, the population is 400. It is part of the Naples– Marco Island Metropolitan Stat ...

. Calumet Farms head trainer Ben Jones hired

to replace Snider on Citation and they won the

Kentucky Derby The Kentucky Derby is a horse race held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, almost always on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The competition is a Grade I stakes race for three-yea ...

, and Belmont Stakes, making him only the eighth horse in history to win the U.S. Triple Crown. Calumet Farm and winning jockey Arcaro, one of Snider's friends, gave Snider's

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a share of his Kentucky Derby purse money. In an extensive 1999 interview, Calumet Farm's Hall of Fame trainer Jimmy Jones spoke to

Blood-Horse Publications Blood-Horse Publications is an American multimedia publishing house focused on horse-related magazines headquartered in Lexington, Kentucky. It began in 1916 through its flagship magazine, ''The Blood-Horse''. From 1961 to 2015, Blood-Horse Publica ...

about Albert Snider with "fondness and respect" saying such things as "Albert was a great rider, just as good as Eddie Arcaro", "Albert Rode Citation better than anybody", "he was a very intelligent rider, very polished", "he conducted himself like a professional", "with great work habits", "It was just a shame Albert couldn't have gone on with Citation to win the Triple Crown and Horse of the Year and all those races," and "Losing a fine young man like that when he was in his prime, well, it just made us all sick".

References

"Man on a Horse"
''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, t ...

''. (May 17, 1948). {{DEFAULTSORT:Snider, Albert 1921 births 1948 deaths Canadian jockeys American jockeys Sportspeople from Calgary Accidental deaths in Florida Deaths by drowning in the United States Canadian emigrants to the United States